The field of the invention is adjustable mounts for snowboard bindings.
Snowboarding is a sport wherein a person uses a snowboard for recreational travel down a snow-covered inclined surface. A mount fastens a binding to the snowboard. The popularity of snowboarding is growing all over the world. Snowboarding is beginning to rival skiing as a recreational sport. While snowboarding a person stands on the snowboard with both feet and his body angled to the longitudinal axis of the snowboard.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,698 teaches a binding whose rotational position relative to an axis perpendicular to a snowboard can be adjusted. The binding includes a hold-down plate and a binding base plate. The hold-down plate may be secured to the snowboard in several different positions on the board and is fixed to the snowboard by screws extending through a set of holes in the hold-down plate. The binding base plate can be rotated relative to the hold-down plate. The binding base plate and the hold-down plate each have ribs or ridges, respectively, which lock the angular position of the binding base plate relative to the hold-down plate. The rotational position of the binding base plate can only be adjusted by removing the boot from the binding base plate and disengaging the screws from the holes in the hold-down plate. Therefore, angular adjustment of the binding cannot be done "on the fly".
Some bindings permit a person using a snowboard to adjust their rotational orientation on the snowboard. The French company Look makes a binding which includes a circular plate and a footbed. The circular plate is attached to the snowboard by a set of screws which engage with the snowboard. The footbed has a central aperture for rotatably receiving the circular plate. A lock assembly locks the footbed in a predetermined rotational position with respect to the circular plate. A housing, including one or more fasteners, is attached to the footbed for securing a boot to the footbed so that the boot cannot be pulled free of the footbed except when the fasteners are released. A person adjusts the orientation of the binding at the beginning of the season and often makes no further adjustments.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,755 teaches a rotatable binding for a snowboard includes a base plate and a binding plate. The base plate is mounted on the snowboard. The binding plate is rotatably mounted on the base plate. The rotatable binding also includes a locking assembly which includes a pin and a foot binding. The locking assembly selectively locks, at a desired angle of rotation, the binding plate to the base plate. The base plate includes an indexing platform and a pedestal which is disposed on the bottom of the base plate. The indexing platform has a multiplicity of bores arranged in a circular arc about a central axis. The pedestal has a width about the width of a human foot and traverses the snowboard in order to support the indexing platform above the top surface of the snowboard. The pin does not restrict rotation of the binding base plate relative to the base plate and is selectively moveable from a raised position to a lowered position. The pin engages an indexing bore such that the binding plate may not rotate relative to the base plate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,068 teaches a device which pivotally mounts a binding on a snowboard on the upper surface thereof. A manually operated handle allows the binding to be changed in any direction desired and thereafter with a flip of the handle locked into the selected position. The binding includes a binding base plate and a swivel plate. The binding base plate is mounted on the swivel plate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,088 teaches a coupling which releasably mounts a binding to a turntable. The turntable is adjustably secured to a snowboard.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,337 teaches a snowboard in which the rider's feet are positionable within bindings which are formed on first and second riding plates. Each of the first and second riding plates is positionable above a channel section which is formed within a rider support surface of the riding apparatus. Each riding plate supports fasteners which are releasably engageable with retaining elements which are installed within the channel section. After loosening the fasteners from the retaining elements, each of the first and second riding plates may be repositioned angularly or longitudinally with respect to its channel section thereby permitting the snowboard to be used with a variety of stances and leg spacings.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,433,636 teaches a snowboard which has a channel extending along a portion of the length thereof. Two bindings are secured to the snowboard through the channel. Each binding may be rotated between a locked starting position in which the long axis of the binding extends parallel to the long axis of the snowboard and a locked skiing position in which the long axis of the binding extends transversely to the long axis of the snowboard. After the binding has been rotated to a selected position, the binding is secured in place by a locking mechanism. Each binding includes a resilient front strap assembly and a resilient heel support which secures one of the user's feet to the binding and permits a user to quickly and easily remove his feet from the bindings in the event of a fall.
Revelation Snowboard makes a snowboard which has two sets of two parallel tracks and two sets of four T-nuts. Each set of the four T-nuts float within one of the two sets of the two parallel tracks and mechanically couples one of two bindings to one of the two sets of the two parallel tracks. Revelation Snowboard has a trademark, FREEDOM GROOVE, and a patent pending for its snowboard.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,492 teaches an adjustable snowboard binding which can be rotatably controlled without the use of external tools. A boot mounting platform has a plurality of inwardly facing radial teeth along the circumference of a centralized circular cutout. A circumferential lip along the cutout is used to rotatably mount the platform via overlapping lipped quadrant segments which are mounted to the snowboard. Two radially sliding segments with teeth at their outer ends are held by the quadrant segments. A slidable band is mounted by actuating locking levers along the longitudinal length of the snowboard. The slidable band has upwardly extending posts which interface with angled slots formed in each sliding segment. In operation, the actuating levers are unlocked and the band slides forwards and backwards to effectuate radial movement of the sliding segments. This in turn effectuates locking engagement and disengagement between the radial circumferential teeth and the sliding segment teeth. The user performs this adjustment operation without removing the boot from the mounting platform and without loosening screws.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,779 teaches a binding which includes a mount plate which is fixedly mounted to a snowboard. The mount plate has a cavity centrally defined therein. A ring is fixedly attached to the mount plate which has a bore centrally defined therethrough. A hub mounts the binding to the snowboard. The hub is centrally disposed in the cavity and extends through the bore. The mount plate is free to rotate about the hub thereby allowing for adjustment of an angular position of the mount plate. A locking mechanism arrests and releases rotation of the mount plate thereby allowing the angular position of the mount plate to be adjusted. A user may quickly and easily adjust the angular position of binding relative to the snowboard without removing his boot from the binding.